Friday, February 02, 2007

The New Yorker : Google's Moon Shot

Timely reality check on Google's book-scanning strategy.

Google asserts that its use of the copyrighted books is “transformative,” that its database turns a book into essentially a new product. “A key part of the line between what’s fair use and what’s not is transformation,” Drummond said. “Yes, we’re making a copy when we digitize. But surely the ability to find something because a term appears in a book is not the same thing as reading the book. That’s why Google Books is a different product from the book itself.”

[...]

The law is supposed to resolve issues like these—between self-interested parties with reasonable claims and legitimate arguments. But the rules of copyright are so ambiguous, and the courts so slow, that the judicial system serves largely to implement the law of the jungle. “There is a real opportunity to move books into the digital arena,” Marissa Mayer told publishers during the conference at the New York Public Library. “And we are going to do it together.”

Sounds a lot like "You will be assimilated..." to me. Read the article for an extensive overview of the domain and background issues.